Commtouch’s latest “Internet Threats Trend Report” suggests that penny stock spam has returned:
Pump and dump spam, also known as penny stock spam, one of the most popular topics among spammers between 2006 and 2008, made a forceful comeback in Q1 after having all but disappeared in previous years. In March 2013, pump and dump spam dominated the list of spam topics. Eighteen percent of the top 25 spam emails (with a combined volume of 46% of all spam) were pump and dump mailings. The trick was the same as in previous years. The emails advertise cheap shares with very small trading volumes, indicating there was significant earning potential in them. If only a few recipients can be fooled into buying the stock, the value will rise significantly and the spammers who have bought shares at the lower price can cash in.
This certainly fits with what I’m seeing in my spamtraps for at least the past month. Yuck, so much stock spam.
RSS - Posts
Yea, I’m seeing tons of it and it’s getting through the gmail filters too.
I have been getting TONS of this crap to my role addresses.
While there is a bit of true spam, promoters use the double opt-in email process because of the CAN-SPAM act and people must opt-in to say its okay for a promoter to send tons of email. It’s not spam!